SANTA CLARA — When the 49ers host the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, the best advice is to simply enjoy the show rather than search for far-reaching implications.
Because barring catastrophic injury to either quarterback, this year’s Super Bowl rematch probably won’t have much bearing on how either team does in terms of its ultimate goal of winning Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9 in New Orleans.
Winning is everything in the NFL, but oddsmakers see the Chiefs 5-0 record as toothless enough that they’re a 1 1/2-point underdog coming in to Levi’s Stadium against the 49ers, who at 3-3 haven’t lived up to anyone’s expectations. Especially their own.
It’s only Week 7, but the likelihood is this — Kansas City is going to win its 10th consecutive AFC West title and the 49ers will probably win the NFC West despite starting in an 0-2 hole against the Rams and Cardinals in the division.
That’s going to happen no matter what transpires on Sunday. If the Chiefs win again, it furthers the Patrick Mahomes-Andy Reid storyline of dominance against Kyle Shanahan with a fifth straight victory. If the 49ers win, it elevates Brock Purdy into the Mahomes conversation and serves as a springboard to another late season run ending with third straight NFC Championship Game appearance.
Neither will necessarily be true, but that’s the thing about storylines. They’re rewritten every week and often have no relation to what actually happens over the course of a season.
Players and coaches understand this, especially those who have played deep into the postseason. Fans and media? Not so much.
The Chiefs can survive a regular season loss to the 49ers without a stain on their reputation and still make it to the Super Bowl. The 49ers can lose to Kansas City for the fifth straight time in the Shanahan era and a loss to an AFC opponent could have an impact on overall seeding but shouldn’t prevent them from winning a weak division.
While it would put a lot of minds at ease among the Faithful should the 49ers suddenly spring to life and put a surprise beating on the Chiefs, it does little to salve the wounds of last Feb. 11 in Las Vegas and the 25-22 overtime defeat.
“We could beat them by 100 and we’re not popping champagne and confetti’s not going to fall,” left tackle Trent Williams said Thursday. “So why even carry that grudge?”
In the big picture, the 49ers aren’t juggernauts at 4-3 any more than they’re failures at 3-4.
For inflated significance, look no further than Dec. 3 a year ago. A road game in Philadelphia was hyped as a 49ers crusade after losing 31-7 in the NFC title game with Purdy exiting early with a shredded right elbow.
The Eagles were 10-1, the 49ers 7-3, and 49ers players were saying the same things about vengeance they are this week with Kansas City up next.
Here was Purdy on Thursday:
“We’re not trying to go out and get our revenge and all that stuff. I think if it was we wouldn’t be able to play at our best, at our standard.”
Here was Purdy from last December:
“Am I going to go into the game saying I want revenge and all this kind of stuff? It’s not like that. I’m just going to try to go do my job and be the best I can be for this team.”
Here was tight end George Kittle Thursday:
“You can’t live in the past, you can’t look into the future, you have to live for the moment and now. This a different game, a lot of similar players but it’s a different team. We’re a different team a little bit too.”
Here was Kittle leading into the Eagles game:
“It’s a different game. I’m not holding on to anything that happened last year.”
What the 49ers did to the Eagles that day underscores the folly making too big a deal out of a game when there is so much of the season left to be played. And that one didn’t happen until Week 13.
It was a big deal for the Eagles, because they fell apart at some point during the 42-19 loss as the 49ers were scoring touchdowns on six consecutive possessions and never recovered. The Eagles lost five of their last six including a 32-9 playoff loss to Tampa Bay and still don’t look right this season.
As for the 49ers, it could be argued they weren’t the same either. Yes, they kept winning, but in terms of peak performance the Philadelphia game was as good as it got.
The 49ers muddled through wins over Seattle and Arizona, got thumped by the Baltimore Ravens on Christmas night, clinched the top seed with a so-so road win against Washington and then rested starters in a meaningless loss to the Rams.
In the playoffs, the 49ers came from behind to beat Green Bay and Detroit, which beat the alternative, but it’s not like their best football was on display for those eight quarters leading in to the Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs.
Kansas City, on the other hand, didn’t peak until it got into the postseason. The same day the 49ers lost to the Ravens, the Chiefs were getting beaten up by the Raiders, of all teams, falling 20-14 at the site where they’d win their second straight Lombardi Trophy. They didn’t get a bye, but they didn’t lose again and won a pair of road games against at Buffalo and Baltimore.
Both the 49ers and Chiefs were different in the postseason than they were even as late as December and it’s likely to be that way again.
“You can’t get back to the Super Bowl by beating the Chiefs this weekend,” former 49ers quarterback Steve Young said on his weekly appearance on KNBR.
Nor can the 49ers be eliminated. So what we have are two of the NFL’s best franchises of recent years in a potential regular season classic and a chance for the 49ers to test themselves. It doesn’t go much farther than that.
For a game in late October, that’s about as good as it gets.
